chapter 217

POV: Melly

My legs didn’t work properly. What did they mean they needed to go through the building? There were turrets everywhere there. And everyone else... “No, don’t! You can’t kill them!” I managed to get out.

“Don’t worry, we know what we’re doing,” the one who was pushing me said. Up in the front, they were already on the staircase, and I could hear fighting up ahead. The shots from upstairs were so loud.

There were screams up ahead. I could already imagine everyone dying. We were far enough behind that I could not see the fighting that happened ahead, and I was glad about that. Behind us was the woman and more drones with her watching our backs.

This entire scene reminded me of movies where security guards were trying to protect a VIP who could barely keep himself together. Was I that person? My legs steadied a bit as I moved up faster. No way was I going to be so pathetic.

“Good, you’re doing great,” he said, squeezing my shoulder a bit. I kinda wanted to slap him for that, and that helped me focus even more. Instead of stumbling, I was now running up the stairs.

I glanced back and saw that the woman was now moving faster as well. How did they communicate so fast without talking?

The turrets were destroyed, but one had an axe in it, one of the ones that the security guards used. That was strange. There was blood everywhere, but I didn’t see any of the workers, only the security guards.

Every door was open, and as I moved past, I saw in the corner some of the people I knew. They were my coworkers, and they were being guarded by a small drone.

As we moved past, the drones moved out of the rooms and joined the rear guard. We continued to move up until we were on the ground floor. The fighting was heavier here. Some of the walls were destroyed. Some pieces of furniture were on fire.

We met up near the entrance, where Remi and Dean were waiting for us. None of them said anything, which was getting really creepy, even though the woman nodded and moved upstairs.

I wanted to ask them what was happening, but before I could, Remi looked toward me. “There’s an army outside. Well, technically two of them. Keep your head down and stay close to me.” He took a step towards me and looked into my eyes. “Keep close to me, you understand?”

All I could do was nod. What did he mean by armies? What the hell was happening?

Without any further communication, at some unknown signal, they kicked the door out. It flew off its hinges. The noise from outside flooded in, of constant fighting. It was like back then. I could see gunfire and bullets flying through the air.

Were we supposed to go in that? It was so overwhelming, but my feet moved when Remi moved. Bullets started hitting near us as soon as we rushed out. Why the hell was I running into a storm of bullets? Was I stupid?

On one side there was an army of robots, but they didn’t act like robots. They seemed like coordinated elite troops, taking cover while constantly keeping the pressure on the other army.

The other army seemed to be composed of the security guards of my former employer, many of the lowlifes I’d seen around; they all had a similar look to them and some that looked like the security guards of the station.

Were we fighting the station? Weren’t Remi and his crew supposed to be the heroes that saved the station? Why were we fighting against them? Explosions went off all around us.

I closed my eyes, waiting for death, but it didn’t come. Even the smoke seemed not to come close to us. Was it the shield? But a moment later, my eyes were filled with smoke, and it was difficult to see.

It only took my body a moment to adapt. Exhaustion hit me because of it, but now I could see. Dean grabbed my collar and started to pull me along, my feet dragging behind me, while the captain was between me and the incoming wave of bullets.

The robot army seemed to be helping us. There were fewer of them than there were of the other army, but they seemed to be holding their own. Remi also had a sword that could cut through walls and was somehow using it to help protect me against bullets.

Sometimes I saw the bullets that were coming straight for me be deflected by nothing at all. Was he doing that?

Remi barely managed to deflect a huge fist-sized bullet, but even before it reached us, the other one that looked like Dean was already firing at that position. When I looked towards that location, my body shivered.

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There was an armored vehicle with a cannon on it. Hard-light bolts flew towards it, similar to the ones Forward Horizon was shooting, but they were so much smaller, so I didn’t think they would do much.

The cannon readjusted, and once again I expected to die. The hard-light bolts didn’t do anything. Why didn’t the cannon fire? Then the entire vehicle exploded. More vehicles were coming, but only one or two shots of the hard-light bolts that didn’t do anything to the armor itself were enough to blow them up.

My vision was cut off as we reached behind a temporary barrier. Remi pulled out a rifle and started firing hard-light bolts as well, but his were being stopped by the armor. It was still devastating, but it took him half a dozen shots to disable a vehicle.

How were there so many, and why did I keep peeking out? That was stupid, so I stopped. My mind relaxed a tiny bit, which helped me understand nothing, because none of this made any sense.

First of all, only the station security should have so many heavily armed people, and from my knowledge they didn’t even have any vehicles, at least not the kind that were coming to kill us.

“Captain Remi, you will soon be surrounded,” sounded across the battlefield, and in a few moments all gunfire stopped. Everything was so quiet all of a sudden. I knew that voice. It haunted my dreams.

“Garildon, I presume?” Remi yelled back, saying out loud the name I hated the most, the one that had enslaved me for so long.

“I do not know why you have done this. You could have been a hero, even though you would have died when you tried to leave this place. Although now I won’t have to sort through the wreck of your ship after it came back to the system. I can simply look through it when it’s completely intact. That would be quite novel.”

“With what forces are you going to surround us? From my estimation, you currently have around 95% of them engaged with us right now.” As an answer to Remi’s words, he laughed.

“You attacked and tried to rob an upstanding businessman, a pillar of the station. No matter what favors you have from the Overseer, that cannot be dismissed.”

“What do you mean, tried?” There was a pause after Remi said that, and then he continued. “You know what sucks the most? When you’re feared so much by your subordinates that they would lie to you so that you wouldn’t get angry and punish them.”

After a few seconds, a couple of shots were fired. A moment later, the battle continued. Our side had what looked like standardized deployable barriers that the robots continued to reinforce with new ones whenever they were damaged too much.

The other side was using the now-destroyed vehicles as cover. The market stalls that used to be here were now scrap, barely anything left of them. The buildings that surrounded this Market Square had holes in them, and I worried for the people that were inside. Hopefully they were far away from here.

The barrier that we were behind shook as something hit it. “Get behind me!” Remi yelled, and I scrambled as fast as I could. A moment later, the barrier broke apart as a jet of water broke through it.

That was Garildon's power. Remi was somehow diverting it, but it was taking all of his concentration. I could hear Garildon from across the battlefield yelling something. It was hard to make out, but it sounded like insults.

Why was Garildon so mad? So, what if Remi stole what was in his vault? Usually Garildon was so collected, so confident and dangerous.

The jet of water was interrupted. From the corner of my eye, I saw a window break and the woman who was with Remi as she fired her large gun. My heart skipped a beat. Did she kill Garildon?

I looked around Remi to see that Garildon was still up, but their head was bleeding. The next moment, the window where she had fired from was lit up by gunfire, chewing through the wall and window that were there.

Garildon looked towards us, and then their hands moved, the jet of water rushing towards us once again. Remi diverted it again somehow. Was he controlling the air?

Remi, Dean, and his brother all looked towards one location at the same time. Dean’s brother started to fire at that location through the barrier that was half-protecting us. Dean moved in front of me, his sword blazing.

The next moment, the entire world went white. Everything was so hazy. Then my body reacted. Everything became clear a moment later, and then the pain hit. Something had been fired at us, and this stupid body of mine was now too tired to do anything about it because it always prioritized restoring the mind and then any sensory organs.

Now I knew perfectly well that death was coming quickly. I was missing my right hand and a part of my torso. Some of my left leg was still there. My eyes moved around, but I couldn’t move my head anymore.

Dean’s brother was firing his gun, but he was missing his left hand. That was strange. He wasn’t bleeding from the stump. Next to me, I saw Dean dragging himself towards me, as he was missing his legs.

He looked into my eyes and then towards Remi. I did the same. He was up, protecting us against the incoming jet of water. For a moment, I didn’t recognize him, as he was wearing some armor pieces now, which had gouges out of it.

He looked at me. He seemed sad, but then he threw a ball of something at me. It hit my chest and broke apart. This mass started to move towards my wound and then invaded inside of me.

It hurt, but I could feel them trying to repair me the best they could. It was just that there were too few of them to help me enough. This only prolonged my life, perhaps a dozen seconds at most. I was losing too much blood.

“What’s your ETA? She only has moments,” I heard Remi say, but it was weird. No one spoke aloud.

“Thirty seconds. The stairway had collapsed. I needed to go around.” Was that the woman’s voice? How could I hear it?

“The weapon has been disabled,” I heard someone say.

“Well done, Sam.” That was Dean’s voice, but he was next to me and didn’t speak.

What’s going on? From further away, I could barely make out other voices. It sounded like army commands. My eyes looked towards the robots, but they never spoke. Yet now I could swear I could hear them talking to each other. It was from far away, but...

“We need to get him angry. The Overseer’s forces are almost here. Captain, are you sure that he’s B rank? That would make him even more unstable, wouldn’t it?” That was Dean’s voice.

“You’re right. They shouldn’t have many skills that help with the corruption that comes from too much power. I’ll try something.”

“Overseer!” Remi yelled as loud as he could. “I have what you’re looking for. It is safe. Look the other way; that is all I ask.” Another pause, a longer one this time.

“They stopped advancing,” I heard someone else say.

“You bastard. I’m gonna enjoy cutting you apart,” Garildon said, and I felt and heard the absolute rage in it. The water jet stopped as they rushed in. Remi charged in as well.

Only a moment later, Garildon realized the mistake they had made and tried to back off, but Remi somehow stopped Garildon from escaping. Remi tried to cut him with his sword, but a shield of water interrupted it, holding the blazing sword back.

The water that the shield was made of started to steam. A small jet of water was fired at Remi, but it was diverted. The next moment, the revolver appeared in Remi’s other hand, but another shield of water appeared to protect against the bullets fired.

Like this, the fight continued while at the same time the two armies fought each other. My breathing is getting weaker now. Whatever Remi threw at me was doing its best to keep me alive, but it wasn’t enough. If only he had more of it.

For a moment, my vision wavered but then focused back in as I saw the woman rush towards me. The next moment, something hit my neck. Did she just attack me?

Then the pain seemed to vanish. My body was struggling to understand what was going on, but it was somehow being healed.

That helped me focus back on the fight. Remi was being pushed back, and then all of a sudden Sam, who had been firing at the enemy army, focused on Garildon instead.

The shield appeared to block the bolts of heavy light, but they went through it. They hit his body, which rippled like water. It made him curl up in pain, and Remi took full advantage, his sword cutting through him multiple times.

On the fifth strike, it no longer passed through like it was moving through water but cut into flesh. The next moment, that bastard was cut into pieces and dead on the ground.

Whatever strength I had left managed to hold on long enough to see that the opposing army had started to surrender before I could feel the touch of the woman.

“Rest now.”